Face sculpture, commonly known as the kneader. In the tokto County area of Hohhot City, flour was used as the main ingredient, and various shapes of noodle products were kneaded out by hand and simple tools, and then steamed in cages, often used for sacrifice, worship of ancestors, gifts and life ceremonies. The main face plastic products in The area of Tokto County are noodle people, zaoshan mountain, han swallow swallow, face lock and so on.
Due to the unique geographical location of Tokto County, as early as the Qing Dynasty, it was a famous "water and drought wharf" outside Saiwai, where transportation was convenient and the economy was prosperous. The reclamation of the two wings of land during the Kang Yongqian period became the main reason for the formation of Han villages outside the mouth. By the time of Qianjia, the Tumo River stretched for more than 900 miles, and the two industries of agriculture and commerce were flourishing day by day. A large number of farmers, merchants and small craftsmen from Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei and other places have come here to cultivate, do business and teach handicrafts. As a result, the handicraft skills of the dough kneaders in the Jinshan region were also brought to the Tokto County area, where the Han and ethnic minorities (mainly Mongolians) merged with each other to form a unique Tokto County noodle shaping technique. Xue Zinu, a representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage at the inner Mongolia Autonomous Region level, and a native of Zhanggaiying Village, Tokto County, are the inheritors of face sculptures in Tokto County at the autonomous region level, and the following is the face sculpture works she created: "Rat Marrying Relatives", "Fighting the Epidemic in the Year of the Rat", and "Guanyin with a Thousand Hands".
Rats marry relatives
Fight the epidemic in the Year of the Rat
Senju Kannon
So far, after about 300 years of inheritance, the face sculpture products in the Tokto County area are mainly passed down in the form of festival face sculptures, sacrificial face sculptures, and life ritual face sculptures. The festival face sculptures mainly include Zaoshan Mountain and Hanyan Swallow; the sacrificial face sculpture mainly includes face people; and the life ceremony face sculpture mainly includes noodle fish, face lock, shou peach and large offerings and small offerings. For example, Han Yanyan represents people's blessings for the return of spring and the blessing of prosperity of all things; Zaoshan Mountain is people's joyful mood of expressing harvest and the expectation of smooth wind and rain in the coming year. For example, when the child is full moon and twelfth birthday, the grandmother should make a face lock with the zodiac sign to send to the child, wear it on the child's head for relatives and friends who come to celebrate, to avoid disaster; when the bride and groom get married, they each eat a pair of "happy fish and rabbits" to show that they protect the couple, which not only enhances the festive atmosphere, but also enriches the content of folk wedding customs.
The inheritor of the face sculpture, Xue Zinu
Face sculpture inheritor Xue Zinu taught the children to make face sculptures during the activity
Source: Hohhot Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, Department of Culture and Tourism of Inner Mongolia